POLITICS Comments turned off

ProPublica: The fate of the republic rests on Kavanaugh’s Nats +1, or something Ed Morrissey

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://hotair.com/archives/2018/08/13/propublica-fate-republic-

Consider this the most boring version of “Where’s Waldo” ever. The investigative journalists at ProPublica, a left-leaning organization that has done substantial work in the past, has launched a new effort to get to the bottom of Brett Kavanaugh’s judicial temperament. And by “judicial temperament,” they mean Kavanaugh’s judgment in sharing his season tickets to the Washington Nationals.

We think it’s important to figure out as much as we can about a nominee’s background before he is confirmed. So we’re turning to you.

Figuring out who Kavanaugh brought to games could be relevant to his confirmation. It would help:

Understand more about his relationships and any potential questions they might raise for the Supreme Court justice.
Get a better sense of what went into this unusual amount of debt for a judge in his position.
Or maybe just affirm that the guy really does love baseball for the judicial inspiration.

We’re not sure what we’ll find. But we do know that people take a lot of pictures at baseball games. Did you see Judge Kavanaugh at a game? Did you attend a game with him? Do you have any photos, and if so, will you send them our way?

“We’re not sure what we’ll find” appears to be journalistic code for we’re on a fishing expedition. The report mentions in the lead that Kavanaugh “accrued as much as $200,000 in debt” to buy season tickets, which is accurate as far as it goes. He fronted the costs for several season tickets shared between friends and got reimbursed, and it’s highly unlikely that it amounted to anything close to $200,000. The debt was reported in a range between $60K and $200K, and the most expensive season tickets run about $6,000 each. ProPublica wonders “how … this was treated for tax purposes,” which is a strange question for reimbursements of shared costs. There are as many tax implications for that as there would be for anyone — none whatsoever.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Conservative Combat Vet Seeks GOP Senate Nomination In Wisconsin There’s a lot on the line right now. For goodness’ sake, Wisconsin, send in the Marine.By Amy Sikma

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

http://thefederalist.com/2018/08/13/conservative-combat-vet-seeks-gop-senate-nomination-in-wisconsin/

MADISON, Wis. — The outcome of a hotly-contested “insider versus outsider” Republican primary in Wisconsin could potentially decide which party holds the Senate after November.

The outsider is Kevin Nicholson — a young, decorated veteran-turned-businessman who walked away from the Democratic Party during his service in the U.S. Marine Corps. The insider is state lawmaker Leah Vukmir — a nurse-turned politician with almost sixteen years in the Wisconsin legislature. The winner of Tuesday’s primary will face incumbent Sen. Tammy Baldwin in what Democrats are treating as a vulnerable seat this year. Baldwin has a large war chest, but her attempt to moderate away from her hyper-liberal, Madison-centric former congressional district has been marred by several controversies that offer the eventual GOP opponent plenty of ammunition.

Republicans tried to seize this seat in 2012 when then-Democratic Sen. Herb Kohl retired. As it turned out, a bad year for Republicans nationally compounded by an aging GOP nominee who had spent his entire adult life in elected or appointed office gave Baldwin the opening she needed.

Nicholson knows this history, and so his biography as a problem-solving businessman and veteran who is running for office for the first time represents a different formulate for winning the seat. Politico — hardly a friend of conservatives — touted him as a Republican “dream candidate” with one small caveat: he used to be a Democrat.

His Democratic past isn’t something Nicholson r

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION Comments turned off

The FBI Finally Cans Peter Strzok By Debra Heine

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://pjmedia.com/trending/the-fbi-finally-cans-peter-strzok/

FBI official Peter Strzok was finally fired Friday, more than a year after his anti-Trump text messages with his mistress, former FBI attorney Lisa Page, were discovered.

Strzok, who played a lead role in both the Clinton email and the Trump/Russia investigations, displayed extreme bias against then-candidate Trump in the now-infamous text messages.

Strzok’s attorney, Aitan Goelman, said in a statement on Monday that FBI Deputy Director David L. Bowdich ordered the firing on Friday, a departure from the usual disciplinary practice. Bowdich “overruled” the FBI’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which had decided Strzok should face only a demotion and 60-day suspension.

Goelman complained that the move belies the FBI’s repeated assurances that Strzok would be afforded “the normal process.”

“This isn’t the normal process in any way more than name,” Goelman said.

He added, “The decision to fire Special Agent Strzok is not only a departure from typical Bureau practice, but also contradicts Director Wray’s testimony to Congress and his assurances that the FBI intended to follow its regular process in this and all personnel matters.”

The FBI declined to comment.

President Trump and congressional Republicans have hammered Strzok for months for his role in the FBI’s handling of both the Clinton email investigation and the Trump/Russia investigations.

In a tweet over the weekend, the president blistered Strzok and Page, along with the disgraced former director and deputy director, referring to them as “clowns and losers!”

The president immediately seized on Strzok’s firing, tweeting that the witch hunt he helped start should be dropped:

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

The Turkish-Palestinian Hate Fest by Uzay Bulut

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12828/turkey-palestinians-hate-fest

Ahed Tamimi has called on “Palestinians to murder Israelis through ‘martyrdom-seeking operations’ (i.e., suicide bombings), stabbing attacks, and stone-throwing…” — Bradley Martin, researcher.

If Palestinian Arabs are stateless today, it is by their own choice. Their leaders have chosen to expend their energies on wiping Israel from the face of the earth rather than on establishing a state of their own next to Israel.

Palestinian Arabs keep rejecting offers to establish a state of their own, according to David Brog, with Israel, Britain and the UN having offered Palestinian Arabs the opportunity to build their own state on five separate occasions — in 1936, 1947, 1967, 2000, and 2008.

Turkey, on the other hand, has never accepted the right to self-rule of any non-Turkish people living in Asia Minor and historic Armenia, which is today eastern Turkey.

Ahed Tamimi, a 17-year-old Palestinian girl, was released from an Israeli prison on July 29, after sitting in jail and prison for almost 8 months. In March, she had been sentenced to an 8-month sentence after pleading guilty to charges of assault and incitement. Ahed was welcomed in the West Bank like a “hero”. “A crowd of supporters jostled for selfies with the teen,” the Washington Post reported.

Ahed became the center of international attention on December 15 when she assaulted an Israeli soldier. The soldier did not respond. Her mother posted the video on Facebook. In the video, Ahed is seen slapping and punching the soldier.

WORLD NEWS Comments turned off

UN Enabling Hamas’s War Machine by Bassam Tawil

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/12845/un-hamas-ceasefire

This ceasefire initiative is rather disturbing: it requires no meaningful concessions on the part of Hamas. It leaves, for example, wholly intact Hamas’s extremist ideology, which calls for the destruction of Israel, and does not demand that Hamas lay down its weapons.

A ceasefire may sound good, but in the current circumstances it will send a deadly message to Hamas and the other terror factions in the Gaza Strip: namely, that long-term terror bombardment of Israel gets you economic and humanitarian projects funded by the United Nations and Western donors, and perhaps even a seaport and airport. The ceasefire would give Hamas five to ten years to continue amassing weapons, tightening its grip on the Gaza Strip, and preparing for its next war with Israel.

Any ceasefire agreement will be perceived as a reward for Hamas-sponsored terrorism and violence against Israel. These negotiations will spur other terrorist groups around the world to continue their attacks with the hope of gaining legitimacy and forcing the UN and the international community to negotiate also with them.

Why is the UN apparently prepared to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in the Gaza Strip while keeping Hamas in power and even allowing it to become stronger? Why is the UN being allowed to play the role of savior of Hamas?

The Palestinian Hamas terrorist group that controls the Gaza Strip has reportedly accepted, in principle, an Egyptian and United Nations initiative for a long-term ceasefire with Israel. According to some reports, the initiative calls for a ceasefire of five to ten years in return for the easing of economic sanctions and humanitarian and economic aid to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

POLITICS Comments turned off

Wisconsin Race Shows the Weakness of Old-Style GOP Politics By Julie Kelly

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://amgreatness.com/2018/08/12/wisconsin-race-show

Kevin Nicholson is the Republican candidate for U.S. Senate who neither the Wisconsin GOP chieftains nor the Democratic incumbent wants to win. But the political novice—a decorated Marine combat veteran—embraces his role as the establishment party-crasher trying to unseat Senator Tammy Baldwin and give Republicans a surprise pickup in the Badger State.

“We are in an extremely good position to win,” Nicholson told me from the campaign trail on Saturday. “I would not want to trade places with either one of my opponents in the primary or the general election right now. They are the establishment. But voters know that only someone from outside the political class can bring change.”

On Tuesday, Nicholson faces State Senator Leah Vukmir in the state’s primary election. Vukmir has endorsements from House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the Wisconsin Republican Party, and several Republican lawmakers. But recent polls show a tight race.

Nicholson, 40, spent the weekend traveling across the state—from Green Bay to Milwaukee to Sheboygan—trying to convince Republican voters to choose him on Tuesday.

“I feel good about our support and turnout in the northern part of the state and the rural areas,” he said. That is the same region that went heavily for Donald Trump in 2016, making Trump the first Republican since 1984 to win that state and snatch away critical electoral votes from Hillary Clinton.

Nicholson’s message is centered on policies and not on his opponent. The businessman and father of three young children has an impassioned, rapid-fire way of explaining why he decided to run for office for the first time (he apologized to me for talking too fast) and why the policies he now advocates policies are “best for everyone.”

MEDIA Comments turned off

USA Today Runs Editorial Calling for Abolishing the Presidency Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/271019/usa-today-runs-editorial-calling-abolishing-daniel-greenfield

Trump Derangement Syndrome has no natural stopping point. One grandiose act of vandalism is soon exceeded by another. The true resistance is in topping all previous acts of resistance.

#AbolishICE? Nah. Abolish the presidency.

Donald Trump is proof that the U.S. presidency is broken and democracy is in peril. It’s time to amend the Constitution and abolish the presidency.

Well that escalated quickly.

But if you guys abolish the presidency, how are you going to unilaterally nationalize health care, open the borders and claim control over all the water in the country in the name of the EPA?

And I have other bad news. The remedy in our Constitution for a treasonous turncoat who got into the White House on a technicality is impeachment. But guess what? Impeachment has never gotten rid of a bad president in this country. Not ever. Bill Clinton finished his term after being impeached. The threat of impeachment got Nixon to step down, but impeachment as a whole has failed. It’s never lived up to its promise.

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

The Spy Who Loved Feinstein During 20 years with the California Democrat, what information did the Chinese spy acquire? Lloyd Billingsley

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271011/spy-who-loved-feinstein-lloyd-billingsley

“The leader of the Russia investigation, Dianne Feinstein, had a Chinese spy as her driver for 20 years,” President Trump told an Ohio rally on Saturday, August 4. That was the first time most Americans heard of this spy but the president was not breaking the news.

In “How Silicon Valley Became a Den of Spies,” a July 27 Politico story, Zach Dorfman wrote, “Former intelligence officials told me that Chinese intelligence once recruited a staff member at a California office of U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein, and the source reported back to China about local politics. (A spokesperson for Feinstein said the office doesn’t comment on personnel matters or investigations, but noted that no Feinstein staffer in California has ever had a security clearance.)”

On August 1, San Francisco Chronicle columnists Phillip Matier and Andrew Ross wrote a piece headlined “Feinstein had a Chinese spy connection she didn’t know about — her driver.”

A “local source” confirmed that the FBI showed up at Feinstein’s office five years ago with news that her driver was being investigated for spying. Besides driving, the unnamed Chinese spy “also served as gofer in her San Francisco office and as a liaison to the Asian American community, even attending Chinese Consulate functions for the senator.”

HOMELAND SECURITY Comments turned off

The Wahhaj Family Compound And Their Dem-Connected Father The open extremists operating in the Democratic Party’s midst. Matthew Vadum

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/271013/wahhaj-family-compound-and-their-dem-connected-matthew-vadum

It turns out the man arrested for running a Muslim terrorist training compound in rural New Mexico is the son of an influential Democrat-connected jihadist imam who was close to the Blind Sheikh who orchestrated the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993 that left six people dead.

Siraj Ibn Wahhaj Jr., who is 39 or 40, of Clayton County, Ga., was arrested after authorities found 11 hungry, filthy children living in squalid conditions in a remote part of New Mexico. Wahhaj, who has been charged with felony child abuse, had reportedly been training the children to commit school shootings. The remains of a three-year-old disabled boy, since identified as Wahhaj’s son, were discovered on the property which was filled with weapons. Two of Wahhaj’s sisters and two other adults were also arrested.

Investigative reporter Paul Sperry reports that Wahhaj “has been on the radar of federal counterterrorism officials for the past 13 years on suspicion of jihadist activity.”

Despite abundant evidence of suspicious activities, timid FBI officials refused to raid the compound, instead sending a neighbor in wearing a hidden camera. The reluctance of the agents of the embattled law enforcement agency to act may be based on fear of being accused of so-called Islamophobia. Fortunately, local police did their duty and entered the property and discovered the children in what some described as Third World living conditions.

Wahhaj’s father, who shares his name, is deeply involved in Democrat politics. Wahhaj is the imam of Brooklyn, New York’s At-Taqwa Mosque and used to be a member of CAIR’s national board of advisers.

NATIONAL NEWS & OPINION, POLITICS Comments turned off

Nancy Pelosi Is Damaging Democrats’ Takeover Chances

Posted By on August 13th, 2018

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/08/nancy-pelosi-damaging-democrats-midterm-election-chances/

Will her party reach out to swing voters by persuading her to step aside?

Will Democrats pull an “October Surprise” this year and announce that the highly polarizing Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco won’t be their candidate for House speaker after all? Growing up in the Bay Area, I saw Pelosi’s iron will and stubbornness up close for decades. The possibility of her stepping back seems remote. But she’s also the shrewd tactician who always tells moderate Democrats they can publicly spurn her because the imperative is “Just win, baby.” If the race for House control is close in October, many Democrats hope she’ll step back to deprive the GOP of a campaign issue.

Some Democrats are willing to publicly acknowledge that the highly liberal Pelosi alienates independents and moderates. “People pretend that it isn’t a problem, but it’s a problem that exists,” Representative Brian Higgins (D., N.Y.) told the Washington Post last week. He said frustrated colleagues told him that Republicans’ anti-Pelosi ads cost Democrats the House special election in Ohio, where they trailed by only 1,500 votes. One third of the national ads run by Republicans in that race mentioned Pelosi, and she became a real issue when Democrat Danny O’Connor, after first saying that Democrats need “new leadership,” finally admitted he would vote for her as speaker over a Republican if Democrats put her forward: “I would support whoever the Democratic party put forward.” This comment dominated local coverage of the House race for the week leading up to the special election.

Higgins says that challengers in other competitive districts are getting the same treatment when it comes to Pelosi: “They are stuck with that question, and they do not deal with it well. You equivocate, and it jams you up, and it costs you votes.”